The use of mobile wireless communication terminals, such as mobile telephones, personal data assistants (PDAs) and the like have become commonplace in practically all facets of everyday life. Technological advances in the areas of processing capabilities, storage capacity and the like has made it possible for these terminals to execute robust operating systems that support a multitude of applications, services and device operations. For example, more and more current mobile telephone devices are equipped with digital cameras, video recorders, audio recorders, global positioning systems (GPS) and the like. Additionally, many of these terminals support one or more messaging services, such as Short Messaging Service (SMS) or the like, gaming capabilities and other services. For instance, mobile telephones are readily equipped with downloadable services, such as Mobile Information Device (MIDlet) applications.
As the amount of data, services and devices supported by handheld wireless communication terminals escalates, so too does the need to access and manage these features. Typically, access and management of the data, services and devices occurs via a secondary host, typically a personal computer, laptop computer, or the like, that form a wireline link with the terminal.
Currently, access and management of the data, services and devices supported by these terminals is limited. In most instances, updating data on the terminal or transferring information to or from the terminal requires the implementation of terminal-specific applications. For example, an image management application may be equipped to upload and download images from only certain device types. In addition, these applications typically require use of terminal-specific cables, docking stations and other hardware to communicate data between the terminal and a host. If the user chooses to change device type, the user is, all too often, burdened with the expense of obtaining new applications and/or new connection hardware. Use of such hardware further limits access and management, in the sense that, the terminal and the host, which are exchanging data, are in wireline communication and typically proximate in distance.
Remote user data management and, in particular Internet based configuration and data management is becoming more prevalent. For instance, many network embedded devices, such as routers, gateways, switches, nodes and the like can be configured via the Internet. In this environment, firmware and software residing on the device can be updated by the remote user, as well as, general device configuration management. As web browsers become more robust that ability to manage and access devices over the Internet becomes more viable.
Remote access to mobile devices would not only benefit configuration and file transfer, it would also greatly improve user accessibility to the device and the overall functionality of the device. As the amount of data stored on these devices increases our ability to have constant access to data increases. Remote access to the device would allow the user the opportunity to access the data regardless of whether the mobile terminal is in the possession of the user. For example, if the user intentionally or unintentionally leaves the mobile device outside of their immediate possession, the user may later have need to access the databases, services and devices associated with the mobile device while the mobile device is outside of their immediate possession.
In this regard the user would be able to tap into all the information that is stored in the terminal, such as contact information, SMS messages, calendared appointments etc, from a remote networked device.
In addition to remote user access to the functionality of the mobile terminal, service administrators would benefit from being able to remotely manage and configure devices. Typically, mobile terminal provisioning is conducted by having a user contact, via telephone, a service administrator and having the service administrator provide detailed instructions to the user on how to correctly configure or re-configure the terminal. In this scenario, the user of the device merely acts as an intermediary between the service administrator and the mobile terminal.
Thus, the need exists to develop methods, applications and mobile terminals that provide for remote user access and management. Such methods, applications and terminals will benefit from being able to provide access without the need to implement any additional software applications or hardware. Additionally, remote user access and management should provide for the user to access all the data, services and devices associated with the mobile terminal. The desired methods, applications and terminals will provide the user greater flexibility in accessing the data stored on the mobile terminal and provide remote control of the services and devices associated with the mobile terminal.